Tag "Ice"

Their results, reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, show that the ice is melting much more rapidly than previously thought due to inflowing warm water. “The stability of ice shelves is generally thought to be related to their exposure to warm deep ocean water, but we’ve found that solar heated surface water also plays a crucial role in melting ice shelves,” said first author Dr Craig Stewart from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in New Zealand, who conducted the work while a PhD student at the University of Cambridge. “Previous studies have shown that when ice shelves collapse, the feeding glaciers can speed up by a factor or two or three,” said co-author Dr Poul Christoffersen from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute.
Data from the instruments deployed on the mooring showed that solar heated surface water flows into the cavity under the ice shelf near Ross Island, causing melt rates to nearly triple during the summer months.
This area, known as the Ross Sea Polynya, absorbs solar heat quickly in summer and this solar heat source is clearly influencing melting in the ice shelf cavity. “Climate change is likely to result in less sea ice, and higher surface ocean temperatures in the Ross Sea, suggesting that melt rates in this region will increase in the future,” said Stewart.
Rapid melting identified by the study happens beneath a thin and structurally important part of the ice shelf, where the ice pushes against Ross Island. “The observations we made at the front of the ice shelf have direct implications for many large glaciers that flow into the ice shelf, some as far as 900 km away,” said Christoffersen.
The point of vulnerability lies in the fact that that solar heated surface water flows into the cavity near a stabilising pinning point, which could be undermined if basal melting intensifies further.
The researchers point out that melting measured by the study does not imply that the ice shelf is currently unstable.

oh sheet Changing weather patterns have triggered a stark change in how Greenland is melting, according to a new paper published on Thursday.
By combining data from satellites and weather stations, a team of scientists found that rainstorms are now driving nearly one-third of the frozen island’s rapid melt.
Those runoff events are increasingly tied to rainstorms — even during winter — that trigger extensive new ice melt.
“That was a surprise to see,” lead author Marilena Oltmanns of the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Germany said in a statement.
The researchers looked at more than 300 sudden melt episodes from 1979 to 2012, the most recent year available.
Warmer air temperatures are having a big effect on Greenland, but warm water falling as rain is apparently disastrous to the ice — tunneling through divots and cracks and melting surrounding snow with abandon.
The rain-on-snow process transforms the surface of the ice sheet from fluffy and reflective to compact and dimmer, a dangerous feedback loop that’s perfect for encouraging further melt on sunny days.
“We are starting to realize, you have to look at all the seasons.” It seems increasingly clear that the Greenland ice sheet crossed a tipping point around 2002.
In the decade after that year, melting increased nearly four-fold, coming mostly from the southern part of the island that’s especially prone to these rain-on-ice events.
In recent decades, meltwater tied to rain events has doubled in the summer, and tripled in the winter — despite overall total volume of precipitation on the ice sheet remaining about the same.

Rainy weather is becoming increasingly common over parts of the Greenland ice sheet, triggering sudden melting events that are eating at the ice and priming the surface for more widespread future melting, says a new study.
Some parts of the ice sheet are even receiving rain in winter — a phenomenon that will spread as climate continues to warm, say the researchers.
Greenland has been losing ice in recent decades due to progressive warming.
Rainy weather, say the study authors, is increasingly becoming the trigger for that runoff.
The researchers combined satellite imagery with on-the-ground weather observations from 1979 to 2012 in order to pinpoint what was triggering melting in specific places.
Combining the two sets of data, the researchers zeroed in on more than 300 events in which they found the initial trigger for melting was weather that brought rain.
Total precipitation over the ice sheet did not change; what did change was the form of precipitation.
Melting can be driven by a complex of factors, but the introduction of liquid water is one of the most powerful, said Marco Tedesco, a glaciologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and coauthor of the study.
Warm air, of course, can melt ice directly, but is not very efficient by itself, he said.
While rain is hitting increasingly far-flung parts of the ice in summer, winter rainfall so far appears mostly confined to lower elevations in south and southwest Greenland.

Rainy weather is becoming increasingly common over parts of the Greenland ice sheet, triggering sudden melting events that are eating at the ice and priming the surface for more widespread future melting, says a new study.
Some parts of the ice sheet are even receiving rain in winter — a phenomenon that will spread as climate continues to warm, say the researchers.
Greenland has been losing ice in recent decades due to progressive warming.
Rainy weather, say the study authors, is increasingly becoming the trigger for that runoff.
The researchers combined satellite imagery with on-the-ground weather observations from 1979 to 2012 in order to pinpoint what was triggering melting in specific places.
Combining the two sets of data, the researchers zeroed in on more than 300 events in which they found the initial trigger for melting was weather that brought rain.
Total precipitation over the ice sheet did not change; what did change was the form of precipitation.
Melting can be driven by a complex of factors, but the introduction of liquid water is one of the most powerful, said Marco Tedesco, a glaciologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and coauthor of the study.
Warm air, of course, can melt ice directly, but is not very efficient by itself, he said.
While rain is hitting increasingly far-flung parts of the ice in summer, winter rainfall so far appears mostly confined to lower elevations in south and southwest Greenland.

The Arctic Ocean could become ice-free in the summer in the next 20 years due to a natural, long-term warming phase in the tropical Pacific that adds to human-caused warming, according to a new study.
But a closer examination of long-term temperature cycles in the tropical Pacific points towards an ice-free Arctic in September, the month with the least sea ice, on the earlier side of forecasts, according to a new study in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters. “The trajectory is towards becoming ice-free in the summer but there is uncertainty as to when that’s going to occur,” said James Screen, an associate professor in climate science at the University of Exeter in the U.K. and the lead author of the new study.
There are different climate models used by researchers to predict when the first ice-free Arctic September will occur.
The climate model used in the new study predicts an ice-free Arctic summer sometime between 2030 and 2050, if greenhouse gases continue to rise.
By accounting for a long-term warming phase in the tropical Pacific, the new research shows an ice-free Arctic is more likely to occur on the earlier side of that window, closer to 2030 than 2050.
Long-term temperature changes Ocean temperatures in the Pacific always vary from month-to-month and from year-to-year, but slowly evolving ocean processes cause long-term temperature shifts lasting between 10 and 30 years.
But the new results do suggest that we are more likely to see an ice-free September on the earlier side of the 20-year window of predictions. “You can hedge your bets,” he said.
Jennifer Kay, an assistant professor in environmental science at the University of Colorado Boulder who was also not involved in the new research, said the study “is an important advance in our understanding of regional Arctic sea ice loss, the chaotic nature of ice loss, and the connections between Arctic sea ice loss and extrapolar regions.”

While ringed seals (Phoca hispida) rely on stable sea ice in order to birth pups and raise them, they also rely on sufficiently deep snow drifts in which to dig lairs, which are much like snow caves and can mean the difference between life and death.
The lairs provide insulation from extreme cold and offer some protection from predators, keeping their young ones out of view from wandering polar bears — their main predator — until they are weaned.
Killer whales, walruses, wolves, dogs, wolverines, sharks, and even gulls prey on pups.
Along with providing shelter, there are breathing holes within the lair that allow direct access to the waters below for the seals to hunt polar and Arctic cod and a variety of planktonic crustaceans necessary for survival.
She was surprised both by the magnitude of the projected population declines — ranging from 50 to 99 percent by the year 2100 — as well as by the fact that these declines appear to be largely driven by insufficient snow on the ice, rather than early ice breakup.
In addition to overall seal population declines, the model projects that there will be a smaller proportion of juveniles relative to adults and pups over time, as fewer pups make it to their teenage years. “When we put the previously published demographic estimates into our model, it predicted dramatic population declines that are inconsistent with the fact that ringed seals still exist in that area,” Reimer said.
Ringed seals’ dependence on sea ice and snow makes them good indicators of climate change.
So, as an indicator species, ringed seals provide information on the health of Arctic marine ecosystems.
Furthermore, future ecological challenges must be anticipated.

‘That will have to change if B.C.
Randy Shore The wheels are coming off and Big Green isn’t happy~ctm Dozens of solar, wind and run-of-river power projects have been indefinitely suspended by the provincial government in an effort to manage the cost of electricity from independent power producers.
“That will have to change if B.C.
is to pursue its CleanBC plans,” said Jae Mather, executive director of Clean Energy B.C.
By turning its back on alternative energy, B.C.
The provincial government’s CleanBC plan calls for a massive program of electrification of homes, industry and transportation with aggressive greenhouse-gas reduction targets set for 2030.
Adding to the gloom, a report released Wednesday found that B.C.
HT/Patrick H O……K….. Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 Here’s a link to the full paper.
Estimates European arrival in 1492 lead to 56 million deaths by 1600.
Power plants in the United States need as much water each year as all of the nation’s farms…

Their gradients of icy blue are mesmerising, as are their endless shapes.
I love the way the green arch surrounds the distant blue icebergs, and how some of the blue-green ice is showing just below the water’s surface Here people practice a very unique style of fishing, gently lowering thimble-shaped nets in a very shallow lake over fish hiding in the water grasses; they then rap their oar against the net, disturbing the fish and causing them to swim into the net Sometimes called sea gypsies, the Bajau have little allegiance to any country.
They distrust Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
They live in boats and small stilted homes.
They are fishermen and speak their own language In the tiny country, large freshwater lakes provide a bountiful harvest for fishermen and open-air markets.
This marketplace presents a colourful foreground as a storm builds on the horizon.
Moments later, the skies opened in a tremendous downpour, prompting a frenzied search for shelter Held on a winter evening, the festival features 5,000 men in loincloths vying for a symbolic baton, which is tossed into the inebriated throng.
Whoever possesses the baton receives good luck for the year.
The scrum becomes tumultuous when one man catches the baton because anyone who touches him acquires the good luck as well The setting sun over the desert makes an enchanting shadow as a caravan of camel merchants winds its way toward the next stop on its journey.
As I photographed a pair of swans took flight Tonga is one of the very few places you can actually snorkel in close proximity to whales.

Guest essay by Eric Worrall h/t Breitbart / James Delingpole – US scientists appealed to Argentina for help when the US icebreaker Laurence M Gould failed to break through the ice.
American scientists rescued from icebound Antarctic island
March 12, 2018 A group of American scientists was rescued from an island off Antarctica’s coast after ice prevented a U.S. Antarctic Program research vessel from reaching them.
The four U.S. scientists and a support staff member conducting research on Antarctica’s Joinville Island were airlifted by helicopter Sunday from an icebreaker ship dispatched by Argentina, said the National Science Foundation, which funds and manages the Antarctic program.
… Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/gma/american-scientists-rescued-icebound-antarctic-island-205205965–abc-news-topstories.html No doubt in a few decades helicopter rescues of scientists stuck in the global warming will be a thing of the past.
Having said that, perhaps the USA should consider upgrading its ice breaker fleet, just in case the ice melt takes a little longer than anticipated.
WUWT readers may remember this story from last year, where Chris Turney, leader of the ill fated “ship of fools” Spirit of Mawson expedition that go stuck in Antarctic sea ice said: “Penguins Don’t Migrate, they’re dying!” and of course blamed the dreaded “climate change” as the reason.
: +0.20 C (about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for February.
Northern Hemisphere: +0.24 C (about 0.43 degrees Fahrenheit) above 30-year average for February.
CREDIT NASA/Kirk Knobelspiesse Clouds play a prominent role in moderating Earth’s climate, but their role is still poorly… Guest essay by Eric Worrall Michael Bloomberg joins Leonardo DiCaprio and the Angry Birds character “Red” as a UN appointed climate envoy.

On a crowded island like Britain, encountering absolute silence is rare.
But one place where true tranquility can be guaranteed for the foreseeable future is in Cumbria’s north lakes, on the shores of Thirlmere.
On Friday afternoon, close to Thirlmere’s south shore, a relieved Susi Wood, the valley’s 68-year-old lay minister, said the threat of “sound violence” had left locals absolutely horrified.
Her tiny church, perched close to the lake, has no electricity or heating.
The zip wire would have demolished it permanently,” she said .
Retired couple June Slater, 70, and Stephen Jenkinson, 60, paused briefly to gaze across the black waters above which the zip wires would have swung.
She claimed to have good reason to cherish the view.
The 32-year-old from Preston said the car park offered one of his favourite views but was ambivalent about the zip wire.
On still days, said Bland, you could even hear the laugh of people the size of dots sharing a joke.
The 37-year-old shook his head: “Can you imagine being up here, hearing the screams of nutters flying across the lake?” Bland headed up the mountain and soon the only noise was the rustle of dead bracken.

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